My name is a problem. Not merely is my first name often misspelled (and, where I now live, almost universally mispronounced) it's often assumed to be my family name. While it's pretty common for Scottish guys to go by their middle name, since they'll often have the same first name as their father¹, my first name really is my given name. It's just my luck that my family name is more common as a first name. Also, my name is really long; with my middle name, it's too long for Canada's ID system, so I have an “official” name² that's my real name minus a letter or two. I should just add LLC on the end and be my own legal partnership. Hence, it's a lot easier to go by my nickname.

A friend's rather odd quest to see how many of his Facebook friends had their names mentioned in Milwaukee streets led to me creating a list derived from OSM data³ for him. That got me wondering further: is there a city in the world where Stewart Street/Road/Avenue/… intersects with Russell Road/Street/Avenue/…?

Before I get preemptively banned from Overpass Turbo for life for thinking up the most futile way to heat up a server, I'll probably never do this. If I did, I should probably just look in New Zealand⁴, because it often seems — in place names, at least — to be more Scottish than Scotland.

¹: This can make lowland Scottish genealogy an interesting challenge. I think I've got something like five consecutive generations of Roberts marrying Agneses in my ancestry; imaginative we ain't. I do have to keep reminding myself that my lot were the ones who didn't have the get-up-and-go to become hillbillies.

²: no, I'm not getting all Freemen-on-the-Land nonsense on you here. Just in case you were getting worried.

⁴: My ancestry does have a slightly more Highland branch, of whom I've written here before. My grandfather remembered his grandmother describing seeing the boats leaving to take the Stewarts of Appin to New Zealand during the Clearances.